Team profile

Germany are competing at the World Grand Prix for the ninth consecutive time. They won the bronze medal in 2002 and 2009 but finished seventh in Group 1 last year, after winning four of their nine matches. It was an improvement of three places on their 2014 result, and a far better result than in 2013. They finished joint-ninth at the 2014 World Championship, after securing fifth spot in their second-round pool. Earlier in 2014, they defeated the United States in the final of the Montreux Volley Masters in Switzerland to win the title for the first time.

Germany took their first gold in the European League in 2013 and followed that success last year with the silver medal on home ground in Berlin where they lost to Turkey in the final. They were runners-up in the European Championship in 2011 and 2013, having taken the bronze medal in their first appearance as a unified nation in 1991 and repeating the feat in 2003. The international records of GDR (East Germany) and West Germany were allocated to the present national team, meaning they can boast gold medals from the European Championships of 1983 and 1987 as well as the silver medal at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games.